“I know where she is!” Cash yelled, and I whirled.
There must have been death in my eyes—there was certainly murder in my heart—because Cash scrambled to his feet and lifted his palms.
“She’s not in there,” Cash told me.
I didn’t believe him. Why the hell would Cash care? Was this a trick? Did he want her to die in there?
“She’s not in there,” Cash repeated, calm and certain. It sounded like the truth, but I couldn’t think straight.
“Where. Is. My. Wife.” My voice was inhuman. I didn’t recognize it. I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin at any second.
“Some asshole with a gun hauled her into a car and drove off. I’ve got two guys on her tail.” Cash looked at the motorcycle that had tumbled to the ground when I’d pulled him off it. Cash gestured to the bike and said, “What the hell, man.”
I grabbed the lapels of the leather jacket again. “If you don’t tell me where my wife is in the next three seconds, you won’t live to see the fourth.”
Cash lifted his gaze to meet my eyes. His smile was cold and calculating, and he said, “I’ll take you right to her,” he promised. “As long as you do something for me first.”
“What do you want?”
“How about part with something you care about?” Cash gestured to the signet ring on my right hand.
The ring my father had worn every day of my life. The ring that made me feel close to my father, that reminded me that I’d promised to take care of everyone but myself. Giving it to Cash was giving up a part of my past. It was opening a door for Cash to exploit me if I ever wanted it back. The last piece of my father I had for myself.
I didn’t even need to think about it for a second. “Fine,” I said, tugging the ring off and slapping it into Cash’spalm. “Let’s go.”
Cash’s smile was a slash of white in his dark stubble. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but I knew they were gleaming with satisfied greed.
“You’re a bastard, Bridges.”
“I know,” Cash replied easily. “It runs in the family.”
I got in my car and followed the motorcycle into the forest.
THIRTY
SADIE
Henry kept the gun in his lap as he drove. His movements were jittery, his gaze glassy. His pupils were pinpricks that gave me shivers every time he glanced at me.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he repeated for the hundredth time. “If you’d just come back to me like you were supposed to, this wouldn’t have had to happen. But youleft, Sadie. You left and got married. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Fear choked me. We were almost at the I-95 freeway that would take us down the coast and out of Maine. The forest was thick and green on either side of the road, the sky blue. Summer beat down on us, incongruous with the horror icing my veins.
He’d taken my phone and set fire to Life’s a Stitch. I’d seen it go up in flames as we drove away. I never should have gotten into the car, but he’d held a gun to my waist and prodded me with the end of the barrel. Now I regretted my cowardice.
“You broke up with me, Henry,” I said with a voice that only trembled a little. My fear was so big it made everything go still. “You told me you didn’t want to be with me anymore. You kicked me out of our home.”
“You were supposed tocome back to me,” he roared, leaning forward as he gripped the steering wheel. His hand tightened on the gun, and I closed my eyes to suck in a slow breath. “You were so mad at me for fucking Erin, but what was I supposed to do? Live without sex for the rest of my life? This would have been so easy if you justlistenedto me, Sadie.”
Erin had been the coworker he wanted to open the relationship for. My mouth was dry as I sat utterly still, watching him take a bend a little too fast. The gravel on the shoulder crunched under our tires, and he let go of the gun to wrench the wheel with both hands.
“You deserved to be punished for being so stuck-up.”
“That’s why you broke up with me.” I kept my voice low and calm, as much to keep my own panic at bay as to keep Henry calm.
He exhaled. “You were supposed to suffer, Sadie. And then you’d come back to me and everything would be okay. You’d see the error of your ways, and everything would be okay.”
We slowed as we reached the exit that would take us onto the freeway. Henry shook his head and guided the car onto the main road, then jammed his foot on the accelerator to speed up.
